Early Warning Signs
by Lang Noi
Summary: In honor of Lesson of the Fox which will probably be discontinued, I decided to use the chracters in one last tribute before they fade. This is set in the AU where Apprenticeship takes place, so read the summary to that first.


A/N: Just wondering, but what would have happened if the _Apprenticeship_ AU Akatsuki went a little too far? Especially if Nariko, her team, Umeko, and Inuki were just happening by?

Teams:

Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma (jounin)

Sanyu, Nariko, and Keitaro (jounin)

Umeko and Inuki (off-duty ANBU/chuunin)

Gai

Vs.

Itachi and Kisame

Somehow, I think this is a little unfair, ne? Too bad.

This can be read as a stand-alone or as a preview of _Apprenticeship_. All OCs are fifteen and sixteen.

* * *

There was no doubt in Nariko's mind that the situation was bad. Hell, it'd gone downhill _long_ before the redhead's team had arrived to see what all the fuss was about. For some reason yet unknown, the Akatsuki had decided to make their grand entrance just as Konoha had finished up turning back Orochimaru's invasion. There had never been a criminal organization with a worse sense of timing.

Uchiha Itachi, possibly the most infamous Konoha nukenin short of the Hebi-Sannin himself, had taken the time to drop by his old village. He was nowhere near welcome, having slaughtered a vast majority of his clan at age thirteen, leaving a preteen Uchiha brat to brood his way into adolescence. Said brat just happened to be on the team she supervised with Kakashi.

Keitaro was a little different – he had little motivation to battle. His only claim was to defend Asuma, who admittedly wasn't doing too well against Kisame and his Samehada blade. Letting his team's official sensei die probably wasn't the best way to stop them from turning into little Sasuke-clones.

Sanyu was in the fight for a similar reason. Kurenai, being his impromptu 'sempai' upon his promotion to jounin, was also considered his teammate. The other youkai's tendency to get extremely attached and be fiercely defensive was instinctive – though Nariko doubted that he would have even stuck around for five seconds if he hadn't honestly wanted to help.

There was also a secondary motivation for the three – Inuki, Keitaro and Sanyu's younger cousin, and Umeko, Nariko's little sister, had already jumped headlong into danger.

At the moment, the chuunin redhead was using her best taijutsu (which was just barely passable) to try and throw off the Mangekyou Sharingan master, but her attempts would be in vain if she faltered or looked up. The Sharingan tended to require eye contact to be useful.

Inuki was barely holding his own against Kisame as the sharklike man hacked away at his chakra reserves with his sword. The Samehada, being designed especially for absorbing chakra, was not a mere child's toy like the basic kunai and shuriken. It was made to kill, but seemed to be having some difficulty with Inuki's lingering youki.

As soon as Itachi moved towards Kakashi, whom he had already severely weakened with his Tsukiyomi genjutsu, Nariko hissed and her fangs sharpened until they drew blood in her mouth. She shot out of her hidden position, startling her comrades when she slammed her foot into Itachi's stomach.

She'd moved so quickly that even the advanced sight of Itachi's Sharingan failed to pick it up in time. With her foot still extended, Nariko's red, fox-slit eyes scanned the area for damage.

Then she grinned maliciously, baring all of her strong, pointed teeth. She didn't even register the extravagant entry of Maito Gai to the scene.

"Interference time."

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke was, to say the least, startled when his secondary sensei, the aggravating redhead Nariko, met him with a battle-ridden countenance and both arms bleeding profusely.

Her shoulder guard had been shredded into useless strips of steel and, in addition to general damage that ranged from bruises on her visible skin; her left arm was twisted in a way that it just had to be broken. Her hitai-ate was gone and the area on her upper arm that it usually covered was badly lacerated.

"Come on, Sasuke. There's a meeting with the rest of the Rookie Nine and Team Gai," she said with a flat look. "We'll pick up Naruto and Sakura along the way."

Sasuke had to ask. It wasn't every day that a jounin showed up in the hospital hallways without bearing any marks of being treated herself. Heck, if anyone went into the Konoha General Hospital with a _cold_ they got strapped to a bed for three days while it was being 'cured'. "What happened to you?"

She didn't even look him in the eye, but her defeated posture gave away everything. Something very, very bad had happened. "I'm sorry Sasuke, but you'll have to wait for the meeting like everyone else."

Naruto, when the found him, was at Ichiraku. Again. He complained about being dragged away from his beloved ramen, but the look his Nariko-neechan told him to shut up. She never glared at him, Sasuke realized. Such a change of pace must have shocked the blonde knucklehead into temporary silence.

Sakura was at the Yamanaka's flower shop, along with Ino. Nariko ended up speaking sharply to both of the Yamanaka adults, who had mistaken her for a genin just out of a brutal training session.

"For the last time, I am acting on the orders of Maito Gai for this period of time. And for God's sake, I'm a jounin!" the redhead had shouted at Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's father.

As Ino clung to him, Sasuke wondered what kind of news this could be. Naruto had stayed silent for almost ten minutes as the teenage jounin had collected the relevant genin, so maybe he'd read more into Nariko's glare than Sasuke had. Sakura was giving Ino the evil eye, but Sasuke ignored her. Sakura hadn't been snapped at, so it was only logical that she would think of the situation as normal.

"Sakura," he said as Ino finally let go. That got the pink-haired girl's attention. "Do you notice anything strange?"

Ino had started whining at Nariko by this point, so he was confident that they wouldn't be overheard.

"Yeah, actually." Sakura replied after a moment. Sasuke noted that Naruto had fallen into step beside him instead of staying up front. "Sasuke-kun, it's a bit off how Nariko-sempai came to get us. Normally Kakashi-sensei just tells us when we're supposed to get together for practice."

"Maybe Kakashi-sensei's just being a pain." Naruto put in with only half his usually vigor.

Suddenly, Nariko said over her shoulder, "I can hear you, you know. Don't form any opinions until all the information has been presented. Ninja rule number sixteen: observation is the key."

The genin had their mouths shut for the rest of the walk, but that didn't stop them from exchanging worried glances.

* * *

They arrived at Team Seven's training grounds to see Nariko's two other teammates and Gai-sensei. Every genin was soon accounted for, but no one made a move to explain the jounins' injuries.

Sanyu looked like he'd tried to arm-wrestle a gorilla and lost. His right arm was in a sling and someone had pulled off the mesh shirt he wore under his jacket to wrap him up in bandages. He was also nursing a black eye and a steadily darkening bruise all along his jaw.

Keitaro, of the teenage jounin, looked the most injured. His upper left arm was bandaged heavily and so was the left side of his stomach, but the only visible wound was a ring-like bruise around his neck where an opponent had tried to choke him. His right arm, though it wasn't quite as obvious, was bandaged from shoulder to fingertips under his sleeve.

Only Gai had no painful souvenirs of the palpably hard fight.

"Okay, what the hell happened to you guys?!" Sasuke demanded.

Nariko gave him a look, but the Uchiha prodigy pressed on. "You three are some of the youngest jounin in this village's history. And you," he jabbed his accusing finger at Sanyu, "are the expert medic of your team. How the hell could something like this happen?!"

Sanyu's expression darkened, but Keitaro answered before the former could counter rudely. "I believe you have heard of this technique. It was used on our team and Hatake-san earlier today by an S-class nukenin. There is a distinct possibility that this genjutsu was performed on you approximately six years ago, leaving psychological scars that run deeper than any other."

Well, he'd certainly lost Naruto with that speech. However, the sharper minds were turning to Sasuke for stunned confirmation.

Keitaro continued, ignoring the genins' reactions. "This is an S-rank illusion that manipulates the target's perception of space-time, among other effects that won't be specified until Hatake-san wakes up and tells us. It has been said that the technique is actually a kinjutsu based upon a very special kekkei genkai…ring a bell, Sasuke?"

During the second half of Keitaro's overcomplicated and generalized explanation, Sasuke had felt his insides freeze. Even as he silently asked for the name of the user of the genjutsu, he already knew.

Nariko frowned, but answered, "Akatsuki member, Sharingan master, otherwise called Uchiha Itachi. He and his partner, a Kirigakure nukenin by the name of Hoshigaki Kisame, decided to drop by for a visit. One of them didn't get out alive. Guess who?"

As Sasuke's expression started to rival the heart of a glacier, the other genin just blinked.

"Who's Uchiha Itachi? Is he related to Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked. Sasuke would have hissed at her for her stupidity, but was too engrossed in his own simmering cauldron of hatred to do anything besides growl and clench his fists.

Sanyu gave her a long look, "Uchiha Itachi is the only other known survivor of the Uchiha Massacre besides Sasuke, which makes sense since he was the one doing all the killing."

The expression "you could hear a pin drop" didn't seem to be too far off in this case. No one said anything, and even Lee and Gai had gone silent.

Nariko went on, though this time only speaking to Sasuke. "Itachi survived, but is currently missing an arm. If his superiors don't kill him first, you have a shot. As for why they came…who knows? Maybe somebody was feeling homesick."

Sakura raised her hand as soon as Nariko had finished, as if in a classroom. When the older kunoichi nodded at her, she asked, "Nariko-sempai, where are Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, and Asuma-sensei? They were in that fight too, weren't they?"

At this, all three teenagers exchanged dark looks. They seemed to have confirmed something, since after they looked at Gai for agreement, Sanyu sighed and started talking.

"You twelve do realize that members of Akatsuki outstrip the Sannin in terms of raw power, right?" The genin shook their heads. Sanyu sighed again, holding up five fingers. "At this point, there are five people in the critical care ward at the hospital and no one can heal them. Their names are Hatake Kakashi, Yuuhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, Higurashi Inuki, and Umeko. The first three are your senseis. The last two are my cousin and Nariko's younger sister.

"Hatake Kakashi is suffering from chakra depletion (not like it's anything new), four broken ribs, a hole in his torso the size of your fist, and is currently in a coma. Yuuhi Kurenai has both of her arms broken in three different places, and internal bleeding along with psychological trauma from her own reflected genjutsu." Kiba and Hinata gasped at this as Sanyu continued with his medical jargon. "Sarutobi Asuma has sustained seven broken fingers, severe lacerations along his upper arms from the Samehada sword, and acute chakra depletion. Higurashi Inuki's rib cage has been crushed and his lung punctured, coupled with being in an advanced state of shock and having mild seizures. Of the five, Umeko got off lucky – she only has chakra depletion and a concussion to worry about."

Nariko picked up where Sanyu trailed off. "These are the more serious cases in the ER right now, but all of the medics are exhausted and their rooms are overcrowded. How do you expect that we're walking around like this?"

No one had any explanation. Nariko went on, "I don't want to say everything the head nurse told me, but…the current supply of doctors, medic-nin and nurses they have isn't nearly enough to perform the healing techniques necessary. Without adequate treatment and surgery, there are going to be four fewer shinobi in Konoha."

That was met with cries of despair and outrage. Nariko didn't look surprised when Naruto got in her face about it. Sasuke was too stunned to speak. Sakura and Ino were bawling. Shikamaru looked like someone had just landed a killing blow on an ally of his. Chouji's mouth was open and he was gawking. All three members of Team Gai were shocked into silence.

After a long moment that was filled with Naruto and Kiba's vivid cursing and everyone panicking in their own ways, Gai shouted for quiet. It was probably the first time in his life that he'd actually told someone else quiet down. Gai and quiet? They'd stopped talking to each other long before then.

Nariko glanced at her teammates, who had gone quite grim. Muttering something about the stupidity of men, she said, "There is a chance that they can be saved, you know. But it really isn't up to us–"

"There's a chance?!" Naruto demanded as loudly as possible.

"Yeah, but it's going to be almost impossible. Like I said, we can't just say something and it'll happen. The first option is that Sakura masters that medical jutsu Sanyu was trying to teach her while she was pining for Sasuke. It's all-purpose and pretty strong, but uses one hell of a lot of chakra.

"The other option is to do what the village elders have been whining about since the invasion. That's even worse – the person they want retrieved is the world's greatest authority on medical techniques, but she gave up on Konoha a long time ago. There's little chance that she'll listen to a bunch of genin or anything else that wants her to help their senseis."

Naruto scowled thunderously. "Then what can you do?!" he demanded, his voice so cold that the other members of Team Seven were shocked.

Nariko's red eyes were dark with pity, "As far as Elder Hotaru has told me, nothing." She winced as her arm shifted, but didn't look as though she was particularly upset. "Three beat-up jounin would be completely useless on a mission to seek out Tsunade. Eleven genin, a chuunin and one of the Sannin, however…"

Sanyu gave her a flat look. "She means that the current roster of genin, plus Shikamaru, and plus Jiraiya, have a much better chance of getting Tsunade to help than we do, seeing as she'll probably see us as a threat."

Later, the three jounins would swear to high heaven that the entire crop of genin of that year was insane. No one else would possibly take those odds and actually make it work out for the best. But then, that was Naruto's classmates for you.

Amazingly, Shikamaru actually smirked. "You know what? I think I can work with that."

* * *

A/N: A One-shot that I wrote a while ago and just finished up. While I don't think _Lesson of the Fox_ is going anywhere, I wanted to give the characters a little spotlight in the face of all my DQ-based progress.

Here's what happens later, since I'm never going to write this out – all the rookies and Jiraiya go on the mission to find Tsunade. Team Gai doesn't go – they're staying in Konoha to monitor the jounins' condition and update the shinobi on village goings (as for the real reason why, Gai doesn't like seeing his Eternal Rival so close to death and they're trying to make him feel a little better). The rookies and Jiraiya meet Tsunade, and after a long series of fights – both infighting and actually facing Kabuto and Orochimaru – convince her to become Hokage.

Details of the fight (not necessarily in order): Sasuke kills Kabuto with the Chidori (he doesn't react to the Curse Seal because it was overridden by the Moon Seal – that thing you see on Sesshoumaru).

Naruto masters the Rasengan and defeats Orochimaru after the snake beats Jiraiya (gaining plenty of wounds in the process).

Sakura heals Tsunade after Orochimaru stabs her with the Kusanagi. Tsunade grudgingly respects her for it.

Shikamaru was the one who held both Orochimaru and Kabuto long enough for Naruto and Sasuke's attacks to succeed.

Ino was the one who held Kabuto long enough for Shikamaru to snag him. She did break a finger, but only needed a splint to set it.

Chouji's (Meat Tank) chased Orochimaru (who Jiraiya had already tossed around) into Shikamaru's grip, just like the genius planned.

Hinata found Tsunade to begin with and helped Shikamaru plan his traps out by using the wrecked field as cover while she spied from every angle.

Kiba backed up Naruto and bought him enough time to create the Rasengan by snapping at Kabuto and Orochimaru at the same time (they hadn't been caught by Shikamaru yet) with his Man Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf. He does get injured because of the technique's recoil, but Tsunade heals him.

Shino is the reason that Orochimaru and Kabuto got defeated at all – his colony of kikai insects are draining their chakra during the entire fight and by the time Sasuke and Naruto struck the final blows of the fight, they were already almost unconscious.

Jiraiya fought Orochimaru for the majority of the time, though he was defeated in the end. It turns out that his efforts allowed Shino time to place kikai bugs on Orochimaru. Jiraiya did break a rib, but Sakura patched him up.

Kabuto is dead, since the Chidori went right through his left lung and partially into his heart, killing him instantly. If Shino's bugs weren't on him, maybe he could have healed himself, but his chakra was nearly out by then anyway.

Orochimaru escaped in the end, predictably. He failed to corrupt Sasuke fast enough with the Curse Seal, which he proved when he tried to cause Sasuke enough pain to distract him – it was overridden by the Moon Seal too quickly to have any real hold. His injuries via the Rasengan were not fatal, so he'll live to victimize someone else.


End file.
